Semiconductor nanocrystals having small diameters can have properties intermediate between molecular and bulk forms of matter. For example, nanocrystals based on semiconductor materials having small diameters can exhibit quantum confinement of both the electron and hole in all three dimensions, which leads to an increase in the effective band gap of the material with decreasing nanocrystal size. Consequently, both the optical absorption and emission of nanocrystals shift to the blue (i.e., to higher energies) as the size of the nanocrystals decreases. Semiconductor nanocrystals can have a narrow fluorescence band whose emission wavelength is tunable with the size and material of the nanocrystals.